公开(公告)号：US10962437B1

公开(公告)日：2021-03-30

申请号：US16020874

申请日：2018-06-27

Applicant: Picarro Inc.

Inventor： Anders Nottrott ,  Sean MacMullin ,  Sze M. Tan ,  Benjamin Cohen-Stead ,  Chris W. Rella

IPC: G01M3/22 ,  G01N21/359 ,  G01N21/3504

Abstract: In some embodiments, data from a vehicle-borne gas leak detection survey are used to generate an aggregate leak indication search area (LISA) indicator for a plurality of leak indications (measurement peaks) characterizing a single leak or localized set of leaks. A clustering algorithm (e.g. Markov, DBScan) may be used to group a set of indications into a cluster characterizing the leak. Leak indications may be pre-filtered for quality control before assignment to a cluster according to a number of parameters including background gas level, inter-peak distance, peak shape, wind speed, wind direction and/or variability, vehicle speed and/or acceleration, and/or a lower detection threshold for leak flow rate.

公开(公告)号：US10386258B1

公开(公告)日：2019-08-20

申请号：US15144751

申请日：2016-05-02

Applicant: Picarro Inc.

Inventor： David Steele ,  Chris W. Rella ,  Sze M. Tan ,  Sean MacMullin ,  Anders Nottrott

IPC: G01M3/00 ,  G01M3/04

Abstract: In some embodiments, computer-implemented systems/methods detect and/or quantify changes in emission rates of gas emission sources (e.g. natural gas leaks originating from underground distribution pipelines) using data from multiple vehicle-based measurement runs. Exemplary described methods aim to address the observation that large (e.g. 10×) changes in gas concentrations away from a source may be observed even in the absence of significant changes in source emission rate, due to changes in wind or other atmospheric conditions and local spatial variations in gas concentrations. Described methods are useful for identifying large increases in the emission rate(s) of known sources, for example due to frost heave or other dislocations. Multiple runs are performed along the same survey path in closely-related conditions (e.g. same time of day, same lanes), and a statistical test (e.g. a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test) is used to identify changes in concentration reflecting changes in emission rates.